SpecWriter Field Notes Menu

The Field Notes have the exact specifications as your Checklist, but they have been reduced in font size to allow for additional room on the right side of the page for additional notes, and they have check boxes to the left of each of the specifications.

The Field Notes DO NOT include any Checklist Categories that you have collapsed with the group command.

The Field Notes also incorporate a preamble for you to write the project’s name and address.

The idea behind the Field Notes is to generate them every few months to reflect the latest changes in your Checklist, print one copy and take it to a print shop and have multiple copies printed and ready for use in your office.

The Field Notes will be approximately 70 pages in length, which is why many people have them printed on both sides of the paper.

We specifically do not want you to create and print new Field Notes for each project.  That would be an unnecessary waste of your time and wear on your office printer.  In addition, you’ll want them ready to go when you are on your way to meet with a customer.

Remember: The Field Notes are not generated for a specific project, you simply want to have them ready for taking notes for projects as they are needed.

The idea behind the Field Notes is to use them to take your notes while you are meeting with your client, and then when you return to your computer, you have written notes that match the Checklist on the SpecWriter screen.

In addition, it’s entirely possible with the Field Notes to be able to take the written notes and then ask someone else, perhaps a member of your office staff, to use them to create the SpecWriter specifications for the project.  Because the Field Notes match the SpecWriter Checklist, this person has a fighting chance of actually getting the specification properly written, although you will need to review them carefully yourself before final release.

There are SpecWriter users who, by using the Field Notes, never actually touch the computer themselves.

After you have finished generating Field Notes, SpecWriter will prompt you to save the file with the Field Notes as Field Notes.xls.

We strongly recommend you save the file as Field Notes, this will allow you to open the File Notes file again as needed to re-print the Field Notes.

Because generating the Field Notes will add approximately 400k to the size of you SpecWriter Master File, we DEFINATLY do not recommend that you save the file as SpecWriter Master File or that you have the Field Notes generated in your SpecWriter Master File.

The process is easy:

1. When you need new Field Notes, open your SpecWriter Master File, generate the Field Notes, and then save the file as Field Notes.xls.
2. If you need to re-print the Field notes, open the Field Notes.xls file and select Notes | Print Field Notes.
3. When you want to generate new Field Notes to include your latest changes to your Checklist specifications, repeat the above process and save the new Field Notes.xls file over the old Field Notes.xls file.

In the Preview mode you can use the menu bar at the top of the page to move between the pages and to zoom in on any portion of a page for a closer view.

You can also use the Margins menu to change the page margins, by we strongly suggest that you leave our default settings as they are.

Use the Close menu button to close the Print Preview function when you are finished reviewing the Specifications.

It’s always a good idea to preview the Field Notes before printing them.

If you need to send the print job to another printer, or if you only want to print a page or specific pages of the Field Notes, then you should use File | Print Dialog Box instead.